One quick question.If someone is suspended (temporarily banned), for say a week or two. Will that still be shown ?

I would hope not.

In my experience, the general approach in Moderation has been to keep action against a member as a private matter between the Mods and the member. This avoids any lingering shadows hanging over a member in the public arena. They did something that crossed the line, they got punished and, hopefully, learned their lesson. By keeping the details private, the member can rejoin the community with their dignity intact. There is absolutely NO need for the rest of the membership to be given any information about the action taken. All that would do is allow for finger pointing - which isn't particularly constructive.

Certainly, this requires that the membership must have faith in the Moderation team ... that reports are taken seriously and decisions to act or to not act are made based on objective standards. These decisions may sometimes not feel "right" to those who hold issue with a member, but we have to respect that the Mods are doing the right thing. For this same reason, discussion about Moderator actions are generally not allowed on forums.

When someone has overstepped the mark sufficiently to earn a permanent ban, then there is little concern about their dignity on the forum, so I have less concern about those being tagged.

There is one potential risk to Admin, however. When a banned member takes exception to their ban being publicly declared it could be taken as defamation - especially when they can be identified. I haven't heard of any cases where this has progressed into the legal world, but I have observed one case on another forum that caused the Admin to seek legal counsel.

Very good point. I did not think about it that way.I was thinking about it, from the point of view, of noticing (because of a temporary ban). Who might be that horrible troll (or something, maybe more than one person ?, I'm not sure), who keeps on returning, time and time again.

I fully agree with you, very good point. If a "normal" member (non-troll), gets into trouble about something, and hence earns a short holiday on here (temporary ban). It is probably best that others are NOT made aware of it. Since NOT positing for a bit, does not mean someone has been temp banned.I.e. Apart from the mods here, potentially no one else would know. Maybe one or two people or so, might realise. But that should be ok.

The largest issue is when we get something posted that is absolute trash, and people continue to report the user/post even after they have been banned. Unfortunately the plugin installed is not discriminatory between temporary or permanent bans, but there is a moderator watch/monitor feature that can and does also prevent the user posting, if they have a moderator restriction placed upon the account they will not be flagged as banned.

As for the legal side of things, I am no Lawyer but I can't see how making it known that are user is no longer a welcome part of this community could be considered defamation. If it was making public the reason for the ban, then yeah, I could see that could be potentially an issue, but it is the same as refusing to service someone that enters your shop, you have the right not to do business with them and demand they leave the property.

For example, we had to ban a user just recently, they were privately dealt with first, a warning was issued. The user continued to be rude and was informed as such, the response was absolutely disgusting. They were his own words posted publicly, the ban is self evident as to the reason, and as such can not be seen as defaming him for posting such utter garbage, since he was the one who wrote it.

And finally, seeing that users have been banned on forums has become an expected feature of forums in recent years, I can name several large commercial forums that have been tagging accounts as banned publicly without incident for years now (overclock.net, RealGM, Steam/Valve, EA).

I think the time out simply gives people a good opportunity to take into account the other parties point of view and perhaps reflect on the overall tone of the discussion, I don't think it really matters whether the time out be on public display or not although it could act to dissuade others from taking the same tone thus keeping a thread open. Having a rest might work for those who need it.

For a temporary time out I would much rather no visible indication at all as opposed to this thing.

I think the time out simply gives people a good opportunity to take into account the other parties point of view and perhaps reflect on the overall tone of the discussion, I don't think it really matters whether the time out be on public display or not although it could act to dissuade others from taking the same tone thus keeping a thread open. Having a rest might work for those who need it.

For a temporary time out I would much rather no visible indication at all as opposed to this thing.

Dave posted that I would be having a couple of days away for something I said, and that was fine with me.He didn't delete my comment/rant either for the reason you give above Muttley.

I think the time out simply gives people a good opportunity to take into account the other parties point of view and perhaps reflect on the overall tone of the discussion, I don't think it really matters whether the time out be on public display or not although it could act to dissuade others from taking the same tone thus keeping a thread open. Having a rest might work for those who need it.

For a temporary time out I would much rather no visible indication at all as opposed to this thing.

Perhaps, but as I stated above, SMF has a means to issue a temporary restriction on the account, a total ban is a final measure after attempting to resolve the issue with the user (except in the case of spam accounts which are instant banned).

As for the legal side of things, I am no Lawyer but I can't see how making it known that are user is no longer a welcome part of this community could be considered defamation. If it was making public the reason for the ban, then yeah, I could see that could be potentially an issue

Agreed - and that is a risk to forums where Admin/Moderation is not done by objectively minded people. Just as important: Moderation requires discretion. EEVblog is safe in that regard, IMO.

I have not encountered any examples of legal action being taken - but as I mentioned, there was an example on another forum where one banned member went ballistic with legal threats. Nothing came of it, but it did give the Admin a severely stressful time over the matter.

The largest issue is when we get something posted that is absolute trash, and people continue to report the user/post even after they have been banned. Unfortunately the plugin installed is not discriminatory between temporary or permanent bans, but there is a moderator watch/monitor feature that can and does also prevent the user posting, if they have a moderator restriction placed upon the account they will not be flagged as banned.

I have not encountered any examples of legal action being taken - but as I mentioned, there was an example on another forum where one banned member went ballistic with legal threats. Nothing came of it, but it did give the Admin a severely stressful time over the matter.

Nutters will be nutters regardless.I've had banned members file false DMCA claims and have the whole site shut down on multiple occasions, posted child porn, attack with targeted automated spam bots etc.

I have not encountered any examples of legal action being taken - but as I mentioned, there was an example on another forum where one banned member went ballistic with legal threats.

It happend to a commercial run Irish forum, but was taken by a company (concert promoter) who did not like disgruntled customers talking about them. The form owners put a banner on the top of all threads stating their was to be no discussion of the named company or anything related to them... It must have been there for almost a year, and drew more negative attention to the company than the one deleted thread.

Without mentioning specific cases, what would get a user banned? I've seen a number of banned members that seemed to participate in a fruitful manner. They obviously crossed the line in some way, but I've found that various forums tend to have varying boundaries.

I've seen a number of banned members that seemed to participate in a fruitful manner. They obviously crossed the line in some way, but I've found that various forums tend to have varying boundaries.

Often it's not a "line", it's a "vibe" based on experience of what is likely to create trouble on the forum in the future.For example, someone who posts 99 out of 100 good technical posts, but 1 out of 100 posts is continually inciting big arguments etc, then they do run the risk of being banned for the good of the community.

Often it's not a "line", it's a "vibe" based on experience of what is likely to create trouble on the forum in the future.For example, someone who posts 99 out of 100 good technical posts, but 1 out of 100 posts is continually inciting big arguments etc, then they do run the risk of being banned for the good of the community.

Thanks for the clarification. Unless the behaviour is obviously intentional, I suspect the user would get a fair warning beforehand?